ATHENS, GA – With hopes of becoming Batman at age 8 and a collection of 30,000 comic books by high school graduation, Micheal Uslan would seem to be your average nerd. But this nerd has become much more than the standard comic collector. As the executive producer of all of the Batman movies, including the second highest grossing film of all time, The Dark Knight, Uslan has taken his childhood dreams and made them a reality.
Wearing a Spiderman tie, Uslan found that his comic books came to more uses than one. After meeting his wife on the first week of school at Indiana University, his senior year, he sold 20,000 of his comic books to buy her engagement ring, their wedding rings, a honeymoon and 3 years of law school to follow. “Thank God I didn’t go into real estate,” Uslan joked. His daughter also followed in his footsteps, meeting her husband the same exact way at UGA. “My daughter was so jealous of me getting to come here today. Go Dawgs!” Growing up, Uslan’s father was a welder, loved his job and would make amazing things with bricks and stones, but welding was not Uslan’s favorite thing. “My mom told me to get out there and find out what my bricks and stones were. They were comic books and movies.”
It was a long road to get to that first movie in 1989. Indiana University made a proposition one year that if someone had an idea for a course and could convince the dean to accredit it, then they could teach the course. Uslan decided to take his chances with making a class about what he knows best, comic books. He believes that comics are just modern-day Greek mythology. “Greek gods still exist, only now they wear spandex and capes,” said Uslan. After five minutes, the dean stopped Uslan in the middle of his proposal and asked him if anyone really thinks that he would have a class about comic books at his University. Uslan then asked him if he knew the story of Moses, once answered he asked the dean if he knew the story of Superman, both stories posses eerily similar descriptions. The dean stopped mid-Superman story and told Uslan the class was his. He became the first college professor of comic books.
From then on, Uslan’s plans started to look possible. With calls from newspapers, NBC and CBS news, Uslan never taught a class without television cameras. He then had his “burning bush” moment when he received calls from Marvel and DC comics. Uslan was flown up to New York and went to “intern” in DC. After making up an idea for The Shadow and pulling an all-nighter to finish the script about Niagara Falls and drug smuggling, his foot in the door was a step in the right direction. He was told “It didn’t stink. How would you like to write Batman?” This was his chance to bring his dream of a dark, serious version of Batman to the screen.
Still in school, Uslan balanced law school with writing comic books. Every Friday, Uslan would read Variety magazine and write down film executives’ names and eventually accumulated 372 names to send resumes and ideas to. After typewriting 372 different cover letters, only 2 responses came back, both included getting coffee and making copies, none of which interested him. “Always have a Plan B,” said Uslan. For Uslan, his Plan B was going to law school and becoming a film lawyer. This gave him opportunities to tend to legal issues for two Rocky movies, Black Stallion, and Apocalypse Now. After 4 years, Uslan decided to take a big leap and quit his job, buy the rights to Batman and further pursue his plan for a Batman movie. Although, he was turned down and told he was insane by every studio in Los Angeles, he refused to be trapped as a lawyer for the rest of his life.
Finally, after 10 years of trials and tribulations, Uslan paired up with Director Tim Burton, one of the geniuses he has worked with in his life, in 1986 to make Batman. The other, Anton Furst, also assisted in making the 1989 Batman won an Oscar for designing the Batmobile and the nightmare version of Gotham City. Furst described his rendition of Gotham City “as if Hell has erupted from the earth.” In addition to casting Jack Nicholson and Michael Keaton, Batman was a great success and started an era of great films. With the addition of Christopher Nolan, the third genius, now directing Batman Begins and the record breaking Dark Knight, Batman movies are bigger and better than ever.
When asked about whom best portrayed Batman throughout the movie’s legacy, Uslan said that it is not about the Batman, but who best depicted Bruce Wayne, and Christain Bale “is it.” A few questions were asked about the sensitive subject of Heath Ledger and Uslan calmly said that Ledger was a great actor and that he sympathized with his family and friends and that he would leave it at that.
With all that Uslan has been through he has learned never to give up on his dreams. “If you just believe in yourself and your work, you’ll be just fine,” he said. He has been rejected many times over, but that has never stopped him get where he wanted to go. “Doors will slam, and you can either go home and cry or you and dust off, pick yourself and knock on the door, knock on the door until your knuckles bleed.” Uslan ended with the last verse from his favorite poem by Robert Frost that accurately describes his life. “…And I took the road less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.”
Wearing a Spiderman tie, Uslan found that his comic books came to more uses than one. After meeting his wife on the first week of school at Indiana University, his senior year, he sold 20,000 of his comic books to buy her engagement ring, their wedding rings, a honeymoon and 3 years of law school to follow. “Thank God I didn’t go into real estate,” Uslan joked. His daughter also followed in his footsteps, meeting her husband the same exact way at UGA. “My daughter was so jealous of me getting to come here today. Go Dawgs!” Growing up, Uslan’s father was a welder, loved his job and would make amazing things with bricks and stones, but welding was not Uslan’s favorite thing. “My mom told me to get out there and find out what my bricks and stones were. They were comic books and movies.”
It was a long road to get to that first movie in 1989. Indiana University made a proposition one year that if someone had an idea for a course and could convince the dean to accredit it, then they could teach the course. Uslan decided to take his chances with making a class about what he knows best, comic books. He believes that comics are just modern-day Greek mythology. “Greek gods still exist, only now they wear spandex and capes,” said Uslan. After five minutes, the dean stopped Uslan in the middle of his proposal and asked him if anyone really thinks that he would have a class about comic books at his University. Uslan then asked him if he knew the story of Moses, once answered he asked the dean if he knew the story of Superman, both stories posses eerily similar descriptions. The dean stopped mid-Superman story and told Uslan the class was his. He became the first college professor of comic books.
From then on, Uslan’s plans started to look possible. With calls from newspapers, NBC and CBS news, Uslan never taught a class without television cameras. He then had his “burning bush” moment when he received calls from Marvel and DC comics. Uslan was flown up to New York and went to “intern” in DC. After making up an idea for The Shadow and pulling an all-nighter to finish the script about Niagara Falls and drug smuggling, his foot in the door was a step in the right direction. He was told “It didn’t stink. How would you like to write Batman?” This was his chance to bring his dream of a dark, serious version of Batman to the screen.
Still in school, Uslan balanced law school with writing comic books. Every Friday, Uslan would read Variety magazine and write down film executives’ names and eventually accumulated 372 names to send resumes and ideas to. After typewriting 372 different cover letters, only 2 responses came back, both included getting coffee and making copies, none of which interested him. “Always have a Plan B,” said Uslan. For Uslan, his Plan B was going to law school and becoming a film lawyer. This gave him opportunities to tend to legal issues for two Rocky movies, Black Stallion, and Apocalypse Now. After 4 years, Uslan decided to take a big leap and quit his job, buy the rights to Batman and further pursue his plan for a Batman movie. Although, he was turned down and told he was insane by every studio in Los Angeles, he refused to be trapped as a lawyer for the rest of his life.
Finally, after 10 years of trials and tribulations, Uslan paired up with Director Tim Burton, one of the geniuses he has worked with in his life, in 1986 to make Batman. The other, Anton Furst, also assisted in making the 1989 Batman won an Oscar for designing the Batmobile and the nightmare version of Gotham City. Furst described his rendition of Gotham City “as if Hell has erupted from the earth.” In addition to casting Jack Nicholson and Michael Keaton, Batman was a great success and started an era of great films. With the addition of Christopher Nolan, the third genius, now directing Batman Begins and the record breaking Dark Knight, Batman movies are bigger and better than ever.
When asked about whom best portrayed Batman throughout the movie’s legacy, Uslan said that it is not about the Batman, but who best depicted Bruce Wayne, and Christain Bale “is it.” A few questions were asked about the sensitive subject of Heath Ledger and Uslan calmly said that Ledger was a great actor and that he sympathized with his family and friends and that he would leave it at that.
With all that Uslan has been through he has learned never to give up on his dreams. “If you just believe in yourself and your work, you’ll be just fine,” he said. He has been rejected many times over, but that has never stopped him get where he wanted to go. “Doors will slam, and you can either go home and cry or you and dust off, pick yourself and knock on the door, knock on the door until your knuckles bleed.” Uslan ended with the last verse from his favorite poem by Robert Frost that accurately describes his life. “…And I took the road less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.”
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